How to Build and Use Lightroom Presets

Lesson 12 of 15

One-Click Presets

How to Build and Use Lightroom Presets

Lesson 12 of 15

One-Click Presets

Lesson Info

One-Click Presets

I wanna briefly go over, and as you guys are seeing this, I want you guys to think of how you would structure your system to kind of follow something similar. So what I wanna do is kind of demonstrate some of the different presets and talk about what we have. And you'll notice on, actually we'll just demonstrate right here. But we have our LDB color width and LDB black and white. So these are basically modern color effects. These are our signature colors, and they're placed under this folder structure called Portrait Mixology. You'll notice it says import. Basically these are presets that are designed to use for importing. So they're one click presets that finish out the image based on whatever these looks are. So we know that exposure and temperature, these are the two things that we would adjust on an image. Once we apply a preset, it's going to finish it out. It'll give it either a soft color look, whatever we choose. Vivid color. Black crush, this is like a great preset for like ac...

tually applying over images that are like, hazy, if they have, you know, a flare coming through, we'll apply this kind of stuff. And then what we'll do is we'll actually group up. So for example, if we were to process a scene, like this scene, let's say we select, we're going to start using some of the things that we've done so far. So let's select this little grouping right here. And I'm going to make an adjustment to exposure. Apply soft color. And remember auto sync is turned on, right? So now it applies everything across the board to each of the different images in this set. So basically, all the images in the set are done. We kind of go on the 90/10 rule, which is basically your 90% is gonna be the client's 100%. In general, when it comes to portrait clients, your clients just don't have the same eye as you do. So what I want to show you guys is like, let's say, you know, to get any one of these images, let's say this image in particular. To get this image to this place, it was literally like two clicks, right? 5 seconds. Now we could do more, and to get it to that point it was, there's the before, there's the after. Now if I wanted to I could go in here and like, say okay, I'd like to do some, you know, iris enhancement. So I'd like to do this. Okay, and that looks nice. And I'm just going to do this really quick. That sounds weird. It really wasn't meant to be. That little adjustment literally took longer than doing the whole thing to get it to this point, right? And your 90 to 100 percent. The amount of effort it takes to get something to 90% is maybe 5 to 10 seconds. The amount of effort to get from 90% to 100% is 5 to 10 minutes. So if your clients can't distinguish it, then wait until they come to you for a large format print. For an album, or for whatever. Then take the image and go into Photoshop and do all the finalizing and do all the perfection and all that kind of stuff. But understand that to get to 90% you're talking about seconds. To get to 100 you're talking about minutes, sometimes hours. Don't spend that time unless you're actually going to be printing something. And the best like, what I tell my people, the best kind of temperature gauge for if you're going too far, is did you click more than five times. If you clicked more than five times, you probably went too far in the image. Like, you're not utilizing the presets to what they should be. Okay, so going back, let's take a look at this. We have different sets. We have the glam color, which I think I showed you guys, we have the HDR set, which I'm just gonna demonstrate kind of what each of these things do real quick. Let me find an image. These are designed for um, these large format type shots. The shots that we're going to blow up and hang up on a wall. Okay, so we have a natural color version, which just gives it a nice pop. And if it's this far pulled back, there's also a second level, which is like a vivid color. And it gives it another kick to it. I wouldn't recommend vivid color if you can see skin tones. That's not what it's designed for. It's designed for large epic type prints that set a scene. This is a scene setting image, right? We'll talk about that in a little bit. This is gonna have a more natural vibe to it. We also have soft pastels. Couldn't you see how like, this one single image, like depending on what your style is, you could process this a whole number of ways and it would be totally fine. Just pick one. Like decide what your style is, pick one. Okay. The other section is the filming stuff. So I had a client. She was actually the original client that we'd design the whole filming set for, I went and got tons of Fuji 400h film stock. I designed this for her. She was the first client that came in and said, "I wanted Fuji 400h". Which she didn't say those words, she said, "I want a filming look". So this is what it looks like, we're actually shooting this next to a parking lot. There's cars just parked right over the left right here. And it's shot in natural light, has a very, kind of, soft vibe to it. You apply Fuji 400, brighten this up, and you have that nice filmic toning. Kodak Portra has slightly softer yellows and oranges. So as I was pulling up Portra and I was looking at these two side by side, I went okay, this has a little bit more of this kind of, orange bias to it. And I just picked my three favorite film stocks, which are Fuji 400, Kodak Portra, and Ilford HP5. Like these are the three that I like the most. So I designed it based on those. So this has a little bit more soft skin, and then we have black and whites. So these preset groupings, and by the way, you'll see the HP5 black crush versus like, lifted matte, versus, these are just different contrast levels. You guys notice, like this type of stuff is really, really popular right now. Like the dark, matted look. We designed it so in case a client comes in and says, I want that look, we have it available to them. But usually we'll stick to just Fuji 400, Portra, and the standard black and white. Or we'll stick to the modern stuff. And most of our clients are usually coming just for modern. Like eight out of ten.

Class Description

The idea of learning how to use and develop presets for Lightroom can be intimidating for many photographers. Join Pye Jirsa of Lin and Jirsa Photography and SLR Lounge as he shows you how to incorporate presets into your Lightroom workflow.

You’ll learn:

How presets work and how to use them in your post-processing

How to shoot for presets and customize them for your work

How to create your own custom presets

Creating and using presets are an integral part of customizing an efficient Lightroom workflow. This class will help you enhance and create striking images for your clients.

April S.

When I first saw this course being offered I thought, I know how to save my own Presets, and I didn't think there could be much in this course for me. I like to listen in to courses while working sometimes though so I tuned in to this one just for "noise" in the background. Well, I was quite wrong about the content. This short course is a jewel in my opinion. Pye does show how to name, save, store Presets, but there is so much more. He delves into some pretty great detail about why and how you would save some adjustments and not others (In Camera vs Universal settings), and he explains in a precise, clear way (with demonstration) of how each setting affects an image. I have watched and also own several Lightroom and Photoshop courses. All are great, but none of them covered this topic in such a way as to make me think I don't need this course. I'm going to buy this course now so that I can watch at my own pace and really glean every little gem from it and put this info to immediate use. Thanks Pye!

Suzy Petrucci

I was literally wishing for a class like this a few weeks ago because I spend way too much time meandering though LR wondering if there's a more methodical and efficient and consistent way to get through lighroom editing. This class nails it. The what, where and why about each of the sliders and a foundational order in which to use them. Great system Pye. Thank you.

Nicolet Groen

I was a bit hesitant to buy because I am an interior and still life photographer and Pye is working in a completely different niche. But boy, I am so glad I got it. I finally created a set of presets that adjust my images in the way I want. The content is very structured and jam-packed with info. Next thing to figure out is how to create and use adjustment brushes, and yes, that is also explained it this course. Love it.​ Thank you Pye!